DailyDot hurricane sandy Feedhttp://www.dailydot.com/tags/hurricane-sandy/Recent hurricane sandy articles from Daily Doten-usSun, 17 May 2015 15:00:00 +00007 fatal disasters that were blamed on homosexualityhttp://www.dailydot.com/irl/disasters-caused-by-the-gays/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/fe/8b/fe8b683b7e66ed4f3bde9104d955301c.jpg'></p>
<p>Earlier this week, Amtrak's Northeast Regional #188 <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/amtrak-train-derailment-philadelphia/">derailed in Philadelphia</a> on its way to New York after speeding up to more than 100 miles per hour, injuring dozens of passengers and killing eight.</p><p>Investigators are still scrambling to figure out what exactly happened; an Amtrak engineer is currently being scrutinized as the possible cause of the train wreck, as is <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/amtrak-crash/passenger-separate-amtrak-says-his-train-was-also-struck-n360031">an unidentified object that may have struck the train</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, <em>some </em>people have highlighted the engineer's <a href="http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2015/05/anti-gay-pundit-homosexuality-a-factor-in-amtrak-crash/">sexuality as a factor in the crash</a>. Elite Internet troll (and theoretically real person) <a href="https://twitter.com/chuckcjohnson">Chuck C. Johnson</a> has, of course, chimed in on the topic.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0NodWNrQ0pvaG5zb24vc3RhdHVzLzU5ODU5NDE2NjkzMTY2MDgwMCIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><p>Johnson is far from the first bloviator to link homosexuality to a tragic disaster. The most upstanding members of the U.S. political right wing and religious world have also propagated the idea that gays are to blame for some of the most horrific incidents in recent memory.&nbsp;<br></p><h2><strong>1) Hurricane Sandy</strong></h2><p>According to a blog post by chaplain John McTernan, the natural disaster that raged through the eastern seaboard is all thanks to the LGBT community and Obama's endorsement of marriage equality.&nbsp;</p><p>The post has since been deleted, but the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/hurricane-sandy-gays-same-sex-marriage-obama-romney_n_2038781.html">Huffington Post reported</a>&nbsp;that McTernan wrote: "God is systematically destroying America... Just look at what has happened this year."</p><p></p><p></p><h2><strong>2) The 2011 tsunami and earthquakes in Japan</strong></h2><p>In 2011, Cindy Jacobs of the Generals International ministry <a href="http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2011/04/06/cindy-jacobs-gays-caused-japanese-quake-tsunami">linked the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"</a> to the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan that resulted in 16,000 deaths.</p><p>Earlier that year, she also blamed mass birth deaths on the DATD repeal.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PWsxM1N3RUZxQ3FnIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><p></p><h2><strong>3) The Sandy Hook shooting</strong></h2><p></p><p>The Westboro Baptist Church let the world know that the <a href="http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/12/16/us-church-gay-rights-caused-newton-school-shooting-massacre/">shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut</a>&nbsp;happened because God needed to let the world know that he was angry about the progression of LGBT rights.&nbsp;</p><p></p><h2><strong>4) 9/11</strong></h2><p>On the&nbsp;<em>700 Club</em>, Jerry Falwell famously&nbsp;<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121322">preached</a>&nbsp;about the biggest terrorist attack on American soil:&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="">I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularized America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'</blockquote><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PVBfOGRTbktpYUQ0IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><h2><strong>5) Germanwings plane crash</strong></h2><p></p><p><font color="#232323">As with Chuck C. Johnson and the Amtrak engineer, RWW News reports that talk radio host&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=092Y1aYZkWc">Bryan Fischer </a>cited the gay porn websites that appeared in copilot Andreas Lubitz's browser history in connection with his reported suicidal instincts and desire to take a passenger plane down.&nbsp;</font><br></p><p><font color="#232323">Fischer said:&nbsp;</font></p><blockquote class=""><font color="#232323">It</font>'s striking that one of the health risks that's associated with homosexual behavior is an increased risk of suicidal ideation... Now we are discovering that, perhaps, [Lubitz] was involved in homosexuality, was taking drugs for depression, and perhaps that would explain his suicidal crash of that plane.</blockquote><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PTA5MlkxYVlaa1djIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><h2><strong>6) The California drought</strong></h2><p></p><p><font color="#232323">Between the earthquake and the hurricanes, the queer community is to blame for many of today's natural disasters. But let's add the drought happening in California right now to the list.</font></p><p>According to Christian radio broadcaster Rick Wiles,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thegailygrind.com/2015/05/14/steamy-hot-man-on-man-sex-is-the-cause-of-californias-mega-drought-says-christian-radio-host/">the drought</a>&nbsp;(as well as bird flu)&nbsp;is God's way of punishing America until the country halts its march toward marriage equality and pro-choice legislation.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-iframe" contenteditable="false" data-value="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-PC9pZnJhbWU-IiwidHlwZSI6ImlmcmFtZSJ9"></div><p></p><h2><strong>7) Sodom and Gomorrah</strong></h2><p>Long story short: One of these cities was so gay it gave us a technical name for butt-sex, so God destroyed it. Our bad.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Update 12:14pm CT,&nbsp;May 18:</strong> An earlier version of this article stated that Bryan Fischer was from RWW News. He actually made that comment on an American Family Association radio show, which is not affiliated with RWW.</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/8065672959/in/photolist-dhJFyT-a97sHf-6vvGsS-anGb5F-qrr6Ng-nSkiyk-nTUJph-nZLUqP-6JcPxG-4rcG5y-nDpT19-nwoD3A-oytTKC-ocysvx-ocysJP-9Xvpja-8pnQHU-cYNAQm-oCwfsu-nDqZ9Z-pSrtaq-eeb6P2-ghZ2Kh-eZGB9N-a9cKZ6-cVJ5QN-a9cmee-5C6Dtj-9UKwRZ-qbo9Xo-pT9CpC-381q5-Fbjiu-6QCUpD-fCFsHe-5C2Kaj-6yWc3u-9Md2op-9UKFaF-9UKwj4-howNV-9UKJ38-odBMQd-KxaTa-oVvEtU-3gBRq-anJMjw-65wd8u-fCY3ju-6FZB51">Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr</a> (CC BY SA 2.0)</em>&nbsp;</p>
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gabebergado@gmail.com (Gabe Bergado)Sun, 17 May 2015 15:00:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/irl/disasters-caused-by-the-gays/IRLSandy Hook victim's family seeks trademark to stop online harassmenthttp://www.dailydot.com/crime/family-sandy-hook-teacher-trademark-prevent-twitter-harassment/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f5/d8/f5d826d406d66cd3711eb439ff9e92ab.jpg'></p>
<p>Perhaps the only thing worse than losing a loved one in a violent, senseless tragedy is to see their name abused and dragged through the mud after the fact.</p><p>Sadly, that’s what the family of Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher who was killed during the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/" target="_self">Sandy Hook massacre</a>&nbsp;back in 2012, has been forced to endure. For some time now, the 27-year-old, who was killed in the mass shooting alongside five of her colleagues and 20 children, has been the subject of fake&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/twitter/" target="_self">Twitter</a>&nbsp;accounts that seek to spread&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/sandy-hook-truther-conspiracy-video/" target="_self">Sandy Hook conspiracy theories</a>&nbsp;and harass the slain school teacher’s family.</p><p>But now, Soto’s family is attempting to end this abuse in a rather unique way.</p><p>According to Victoria’s sister Jillian Soto, the family has applied to trademark Victoria’s name. If successful, a trademark could make it easier to have Twitter takedown fraudulent accounts. But whether they will be able to legally trademark the name is uncertain.</p><p>Jillian Soto told the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/11/sandy-hook-victim-victoria-soto-to-have-name-trademarked-to-prevent-abuse" target="_blank"><em>Associated Press</em></a>&nbsp;that most of the fake social media accounts that have been created in the two years since the massacre are for the express purpose of spreading conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook.</p><p>According to official police reports, 20-year-old Adam Lanza murdered his mother on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, before storming his former elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with multiple firearms and carrying out the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.</p><p>The killing sparked a major&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/obama-gun-control-petitions-response/" target="_self">debate</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. about gun control, especially after it became clear that Lanza was able to get his hands on firearms despite a history of mental and behavioral disorders. Because of this, a number of conspiracy theories have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/01/07/top-ten-reasons-sandy-hook-was-an-elaborate-hoax/" target="_blank">suggested</a>&nbsp;that Sandy Hook was a hoax, or otherwise orchestrated by the U.S. government as a ruse to enact gun control legislation. These people persist in the belief, propagated online with the hashtag #SandyHoax, despite that fact that no new gun restrictions have actually been enacted by the federal government since the shooting.</p><p>But by continuing to promote conspiracy theories online, Jillian Soto said that Sandy Hook “truthers” are inflicting emotional anguish on her family and diminishing the actions of her sister who helped hide students during the attack.</p><p>“Vicki did a heroic thing, there are 11 kids that are alive today because of the actions of my sister,” she said. “And we don’t need anything negative to be tied to her name any longer.”</p><p>Though trademarking her name won’t prevent the spread of conspiracy blogs or websites, it would give Victoria’s family a way to keep her name from being misappropriated on Twitter and to prevent interference with online fundraising efforts for the&nbsp;<a href="http://vickisotomemorial.com/" target="_blank">Vicki Soto Memorial Fund</a>, a scholarship fund set up in Victoria’s honor.</p><p>Right now, the family routinely has Twitter accounts taken down that claim to be Victoria, but this process can be time-consuming as Twitter must investigate each claim for abuse. But Jillian Soto said a trademark would shorten the process.</p><p>“Now we can say, ‘Look they can’t use this name, it has to come down right now,’” she said.</p><p>The trademark application was filed on Monday, but it’s unclear if the Sotos will be successful. It is possible to trademark a person’s name, in fact celebrities do it all the time, according to Seattle attorney Beth Hutchens writing for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/02/11/trademark-of-sarah-palin/id=15274/" target="_blank"><em>IPWatchdog</em></a>. But they must fulfill several specific requirements that Soto may not be able to meet.</p><p>According to Hutchens, to obtain a trademark for a person’s name, that name must be unique to the point where it is most commonly associated with that person. The name also has to be associated with some sort of commercial activity.</p><p>“A person’s name has to be so distinctive that the consuming public automatically thinks of a particular person when hearing that name, not just a person with that name,” Hutchens writes. “You show this by providing evidence of what is called ‘secondary meaning.’ Secondary meaning means that even though the word is descriptive (like an adjective or a name), people don’t think of the adjective or name as a descriptor, they think of YOU.”</p><p><em>Photo via&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="http://vickisotomemorial.com/gallery/" target="_blank">Vicki Soto Memorial Fund</a></em></p>
tim@dailydot.com (Tim Sampson)Thu, 12 Feb 2015 00:08:18 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/crime/family-sandy-hook-teacher-trademark-prevent-twitter-harassment/CrimeLayer 8Twitter4 reasons the world has lost faith in Americahttp://www.dailydot.com/via/america-poll-no-longer-number-one/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/37/00/37009ad43753463b72dbc5588bf0fbb5.jpg'></p><p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">If the world were a giant high school, the U.S. would still be at the popular table. However, it would no longer be the Queen Bee.</span></p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7"><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/11/12/germany-surpasses-u-s-in-nation-brands-study/">According</a></span> to the annual <a href="http://www.gfk.com/news-and-events/press-room/press-releases/pages/germany-knocks-usa-off-best-nation-top-spot.aspx">Anholt-GfK Nations Brand Index</a>, the coolest kid in school would now be <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/germany/">Germany</a>, currently ranked number one out of the 50 nations the Index measures. In the previous year, the U.S. held the top spot, with Germany coming in second, but this year, those positions are switched.</p>
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Independent policy advisor Simon Anholt <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/germany-knocks-usa-off-best-nation-top-spot-after-5-years-282368201.html">suggests</a>, &quot;Germany appears to have benefited not only from the sports prowess it displayed on the world stage at the FIFA World Cup championship, but also by solidifying its perceived leadership in Europe through a robust economy and steady political stewardship. Germany&#39;s score gains in the areas of &#39;honest and competent government&#39;, &#39;investment climate&#39;, and &#39;social equality&#39; are among the largest it achieved across all the aspects covered by the NBI 2014 survey.&quot; &nbsp;</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">With all that in mind, it&rsquo;s not hard to see why everybody loves Germany so much. Sure, they have problems both </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/nazi-party-rebranding-hip-digital-age/">historic</a><span> </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/12/germany-doesnt-understand-that-it-has-a-responsibility-to-the-rest-of-europe/">and</a><span> </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/10/europe-is-facing-a-great-depression-and-its-germany-fault/">modern</a><span>, as all nations do, but as their place on last year&rsquo;s index shows, Germany&rsquo;s public perception has been steadily climbing upward for a while. Perhaps their position at number one this year was inevitable.</span></p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">The bigger question is, why is the standing of the U.S. falling? Though this may be among one of the most difficult questions to answer today, there are several factors which help to pinpoint America&rsquo;s increasingly difficult position in the digital age.</span></p>
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<big><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">1) The U.S. is a hotbed of misinformation.</span></strong></big></p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">As is the case with all of this list, one has to judge the U.S. against the U.S. here. In theory, we&rsquo;re supposed to set an example for the rest of the world. Yet if we can&rsquo;t live up to our own standards, how are we supposed to expect anybody else to? So when something happens like </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/27/world/asia/north-korea-china-onion/">the Chinese Government being fooled by <em>The Onion</em></a>, we should remember that the we have a strong penchant for spreading misinformation at home too.</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">In fact, the </span><a href="http://www.weforum.org">World Economic Forum</a> voted &ldquo;The rapid spread of misinformation online&rdquo; the <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-14/top-ten-trends-category-page/">tenth biggest global challenge of 2014</a>. For the U.S., the least severe version of this manifests in <a href="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2014/08/18/facebook-new-policy-can-kill-satire-because-already-dead/B06FVfR3q2Hltg5gCZFS2H/story.html">the saturation of online satire sites</a>. Unlike <em>The Onion</em>, whose stories are picked up as actual news by accident, the point of these sites seems to be <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/james-gandolfini-death-hoax-mediamass/">confusion</a> and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/lol/how-to-tell-if-news-is-fake/">trickery</a>, in an apparent attempt to make everyone collectively dumber.</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">But online misinformation lowers the bar for actual news too; think the </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/fox-news-can-teach-us-internet/">Fox</a>-ification of the entire media landscape. For instance, the World Economic Forum points out, &ldquo;One popular image shared during <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/hurricane-sandy">Hurricane Sandy</a> in 2012 showed soldiers standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, braving the approaching storm&hellip; &nbsp;the framing of the image did not place radically different meaning on its subject, but it also didn&rsquo;t show what people thought they were looking at. The image had been taken during an earlier storm and was undoubtedly &lsquo;real&rsquo;, but had no relevance to Hurricane Sandy.&rdquo;</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">In the most extreme cases though, online misinformation can be truly dangerous. The World Economic Forum also mentions, &ldquo;Misinformation of a different kind occurred in the U.S. during the December 2012 <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/newtown">Newtown</a> shootings&hellip; online and mainstream media misidentified a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/facebook">Facebook</a> page as that of the shooter.&rdquo; And even worse was the </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-apology-boston-bombing-suspects/">Reddit witch-hunt to find the Boston bombers</a>.</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">What these examples demonstrate is the way in which America&rsquo;s online communities can quickly adopt a mob mentality, intensifying situations that have the potential to turn violent or destructive. And while social media has fostered movements like the </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/arab-spring/">Arab Spring</a> globally, at home it too often brings on clusters of ignorance and anger. Of course, occasionally the Internet <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-oklahoma-tornado-aid-redditors/">steps up</a> and does the right thing too; there is certainly just as much potential for the Web to be a tool for justice. But until we move away from a quickdraw, &ldquo;act before you think&rdquo; mentality, then the viral spread of misinformation will continue to infect our populace in a harmful way, and damage our reputation globally.</p>
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<big><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">2) U.S. nationalism borders on xenophobia.</span></strong></big></p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Let&rsquo;s refer back to the World Economic Forum for a moment. Having now released their list of </span><a href="http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/">problematic trends for 2015</a>, the U.S. would be wise to stay mindful of number eight: &ldquo;Intensifying Nationalism.&rdquo; Though the WEF identifies this has a bigger problem for Europe, North Africa, and Asia, the fact is that America also has its own jingoistic tendencies to contend with. &nbsp;</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Though a lot of these feelings in America have been swelling since </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/september-11-9-11-reporting-real-time/">9/11</a>, we continue to see their effect on the country today. In 2011, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140869378/americas-love-affair-with-nationalism">NPR</a>&rsquo;s Linton Weeks discussed this, writing, &ldquo;Go to a baseball game where fans often croon &#39;God Bless America&#39; during the seventh-inning stretch. Check out the American flag pins on the lapels or collars of nearly every politician. Listen to Toby Keith&#39;s current hit &#39;Made in America&#39; and read how it inspired a Michigan kindergarten class to create an &#39;<a href="http://tasteofcountry.com/toby-keith-made-in-america-kindergarten-class/">American-made show-and-tell</a>.&#39; Call it what you will&mdash;American nationalism or patriotism&mdash;it is covering the country like a Wi-Fi cloud&mdash;above the fruited plain from sea to shining sea.&rdquo;</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">For another illustration of this sentiment, it&rsquo;s appropriate to return to the topic of the </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/world-cup/">World Cup</a>. While Germany&rsquo;s victory therein helped to cement their popularity with millions of soccer/futbol fans around the world (including many in the U.S.), there was also a contingent of Americans out there who maintained that the event&rsquo;s global popularity made it distinctly <a href="http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-06-25.html">un-American</a>. The funny thing is that as the Internet brought World Cup watchers <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/sports/germany-brazil-world-cup-memes/">closer</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/01/tech/web/usa-soccer-world-cup-fifa/">U.S. fans were more active online than anyone</a>. Which just shows how noticeably out of date America must look to the rest of the world when you compare views held by the majority of its citizens, with views held by a distinctly loud few. &nbsp;</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">But when does patriotism turn into nationalism turn into full-blown xenophobia? The </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/immigration/">immigration</a> issue is the current crucible for this in the United States. There is a palpable <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/republicans-midterm-fearmongering/">fear</a> of those who reside in or try to enter this country illegally, and in the past, this fear has actually led to outright <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/fall/death-in-the-desert">murder</a>. However, we&rsquo;ve also recently seen many xenophobic attitudes pop up in reaction to <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/13-ebola-myths-pandemic-ebola-america/">Ebola</a>, which has caused rampant paranoia and prompted some to insist that we shut our borders to specific countries. The Ebola panic also harkens back to this country&rsquo;s issues with misinformation, as most of the people who have been freaking out about Ebola have been riled up by something they read online.</p>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">As already stated, the majority of Americans don&rsquo;t hold overly aggressive, hostile, or fearful attitudes towards other countries. But those that do are destroying our global standing for us all. Consider, why would you support a country that has no desire to see you even visit it?</span></p>
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<big><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">3) The U.S. is incredibly polarized.</span></strong></big></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Ironically, as much fervor as one hears about negative foreign influences, you hear much more about negative domestic ones. Which is to say that the level of infighting in this country has reached something of a fever pitch.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Earlier this year, the </span><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/12/7-things-to-know-about-polarization-in-america/">Pew Research Center</a> reported that the American government has become so disparate, &ldquo;polarization is the defining feature of early 21st century American politics, both among the public and elected officials.&rdquo; But this isn&rsquo;t just about politicians. Pew also found that, &ldquo;to a considerable degree, polarization is reflected in the personal lives and lifestyles of those on both the right and left.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">
Furthermore, they note that most of us are not even trying to understand those on the opposite side of the aisle: &ldquo;&#39;Ideological silos&#39; are now common on the right and, to a lesser extent, the left. About six-in-ten (63 percent) consistent conservatives and 49 percent of consistent liberals say most of their close friends share their political views, compared with just 35 percent among the public as a whole.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">There&rsquo;s also a debate going on right now about whether the Internet intensifies this. Though there is no general consensus yet, </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/29/internet-polarizing-politics_n_842263.html">The Huffington Post</a>&rsquo;s Bianca Bosker warrants, &ldquo;The ease with which one can access extreme opinions online is likely contributing to the perception that the web has given rise to more polarized political views.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">In the bleakest moments, it sometimes feels like nobody is happy and everyone is blaming someone else. With Americans&rsquo; opinions of their </span><a href="http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/10/congress-losing-out-to-zombies-wall-street-andhipsters.html">elected</a> <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/americas-fed-obama-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-poll-n173271">lows</a> at deafening lows, how should our foreign <a href="http://themonkeycage.org/2013/08/22/not-much-political-polarization-in-europe/">allies</a> perceive us anyway? You think <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/germany-inquiry-nsa-tapping-angela-merkel-phone">Angela Merkel was mad about having her phone tapped</a>, what about the indignation America&rsquo;s own citizens felt when they found out they were being <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/nsa/">monitored</a> by their government? WIth Americans continually at odds with both their leaders and their fellow citizens, we run the risk of looking petulant and childish in front of the global community.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<big><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">4) U.S. foreign policy has become isolating.</span></strong></big></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Writing about Anhold-GfK&rsquo;s Brand Index for </span><a href="http://www.relocatemagazine.com/news/ds11-soccer-success-helps-germany-to-no-1-in-world-opinion">Re:locate magazine</a>, David Sapsted reported, &ldquo;While the U.S. is still seen as number-one in areas such as creativity, contemporary culture, and educational institutions, its role in global peace and security has been ranked only 19th out of the 50 nations.&rdquo; While this news isn&rsquo;t all bad (at least we&rsquo;re still creative), the revelations about how the world sees our place in its peace and security are definitely troubling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">GfK&rsquo;s Senior Vice President and Director of NBI Xiaoyan Zhao&rsquo;s take on this reflected Sapsted&rsquo;s. &quot;In a year of various international confrontations,&rdquo; said Zhao, &ldquo;the United States has lost significant ground where tension has been felt the most acutely.&rdquo; And between </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/isis/">ISIS</a> and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/ebola/">Ebola</a>, Zhao isn&rsquo;t wrong about this year in particular being a tough one for America&rsquo;s standing on the global stage.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
However, there&rsquo;s also evidence to suggest that perception of America&rsquo;s foreign policy has been heading this way for awhile. In 2012, another <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/global-opinion-of-obama-slips-international-policies-faulted/">Pew</a> study found, &ldquo;Throughout Europe and the Middle East, majorities say the U.S. does not take into account the interests of countries like theirs.&rdquo; And going back father, they reported, &ldquo;The 2009 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that many believed the new American president would act multilaterally, seek international approval before using military force, take a fair approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and make progress on climate change. As the current survey reveals, few now believe he has actually accomplished these things.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">The same study from 2012 also concluded, &ldquo;In the vast majority of nations polled, there is considerable opposition to the U.S. drone campaign against extremist leaders and organizations&rdquo; and, &ldquo;Even in many countries where various elements of America&rsquo;s image are popular, there are concerns about the reach of U.S. influence.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">What we see in these findings is that when America does participate in global affairs, questions of approach abound. But while no one is keen on </span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/drones/">drones</a>, everyone is still waiting for us to make a valuable contribution where Israel and Palestine are concerned.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
So if this all sounds like &ldquo;damned if you do, damned if you don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; you&rsquo;re not necessarily wrong. But perhaps the more accurate way to characterize the situation is that many of America&rsquo;s moves on the world stage only end up pushing everybody farther away from us, while also making the issues we don&rsquo;t take action on look that much more glaring.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-44dc8e0b-a9a9-870d-bd71-382bd76a1df7">Sadly, American media tends to give very little hint of </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/15/americans-need-discover-how-world-sees-them">how the rest of the world sees us</a>. And despite living in a time where instant global connection is possible, the Internet occasionally <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/11/04/social-isolation-and-new-technology/">encourages less diversity among social groups</a> rather than more.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
It&rsquo;s strange to think of America as a &ldquo;brand,&rdquo; but that&rsquo;s also what makes the GfK Index so interesting. Questions like, <a href="http://reason.com/poll/2014/10/10/poll-66-favor-airstrikes-against-isis-bu">&quot;What do we do about ISIS?&quot;</a> are not easily answerable, but the U.S. needs to at least look like it knows what it&rsquo;s doing if it wants to continue to sell its brand to other countries. But lately, it&rsquo;s as if we&rsquo;re not sure how to feel about our brand, or anyone else&rsquo;s, for that matter. That&rsquo;s not to say we aren&rsquo;t still a great country. But with our persisting identity crises, it&rsquo;s no wonder the rest of the world has started to lose a little faith.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keoni101/5530478970/sizes/l">Keoni101</a>/Flickr (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></p>
chriso@wi.rr.com (Chris Osterndorf)Thu, 13 Nov 2014 16:00:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/america-poll-no-longer-number-one/Layer 8ViaVerizon finally responds to FOIA request—with 300 blacked-out pageshttp://www.dailydot.com/business/verizon-300-pages-redacted/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/53/4e/534ef8d649fcaaa36336fb98aac03b8f.jpg'></p><p>
When a group of consumer advocates received hundreds of pages of previously unpublished documents from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/verizon/">Verizon</a>&nbsp;following a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year, they might have briefly imagined the telecom giant was working in good faith. That would all change when they took their first peek at the documents, which were actually just hundreds of pages of blacked-out data.</p>
<p>
The &ldquo;published&rdquo; material concerns the costs and logistics Verizon needs to maintaining its traditional or &ldquo;wireline&rdquo; network in the tiny New York beach community of Fire Island. Earlier this year, Verizon had gone to the New York Public Service Commission to propose dismantling the network, claiming it was inefficient network in areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Verizon wanted to replace it with their modern Voice Link wireless service. Residents and consumer advocates blasted the move, and Verizon ultimately promised to provide the island with FiOS, its high-speed, fiber optic-based broadband service, in addition to Voice Link.</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/10/31/Screen_Shot_2013-10-31_at_5.32.12_PM.png" style="width: 419px; height: 543px;" /></p>
<p>
But as Verizon continues to insist on a broad transition from the wireline network to Voice Link&mdash;which, as the name suggests, is a voice-only system, without data capabilities&mdash;customers and legal experts have continued to demand that the company release details confirming that the old network is as outdated and hopeless as they claim. With nothing but blank pages, however, to detail the problems afflicting the copper-based wires, it appears more like Verizon is trying to shunt its customers to an inferior, but more cost-effective, product.</p>
<p>
At any rate, the documents filed with the NYPSC in support of the initial, unpopular Fire Island decision are unlikely to sway any civilians who download them. There&rsquo;s not a speck of information to be found throughout. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2013/10/30/verizon-responds-to-public-records-request-with-more-than-three-hundred-totally-blacked-out-pages/">As <em>Forbes</em> reported</a>, however, trying to redact all the data based on so-called &ldquo;trade secret&rdquo; claims could well backfire:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Verizon&rsquo;s response may violate New York&rsquo;s Freedom of Information Law. <a href="http://www.leagle.com/decision/197961447NY2d567_1551">According to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York</a>, the law &ldquo;proceeds under the premise that the public is vested with an inherent right to know and that official secrecy is anathematic to our form of government.&rdquo; It <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I96_0232.htm">describes</a> blanket exemptions as &ldquo;inimical&rdquo; to open government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/10/31/Screen_Shot_2013-10-31_at_5.32.30_PM.png" style="width: 330px; height: 766px;" /></p>
<p>
It&#39;s stranger still that Verizon seems intent to prevent the public from reading what&rsquo;s meant to betheir official arguments for the Voice Link plan. Included in the pile, for example, is a memo &ldquo;about overcoming customers&rsquo; objections to Voice Link and responding to requests to return to copper.&rdquo; If they&rsquo;re not even willing to let us see the corporate boilerplate written in defense of their suspicious business plan, it can&rsquo;t be very convincing.</p>
<p>
<em>H/T&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2013/10/30/verizon-responds-to-public-records-request-with-more-than-three-hundred-totally-blacked-out-pages/"><em>Forbes</em></a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<em>Photo by&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenmaciejewski/"><em>Steve Maciejewski&nbsp;</em></a>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
miles@dailydot.com (Miles Klee)Thu, 31 Oct 2013 21:48:35 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/business/verizon-300-pages-redacted/BusinessHuman Rights group wants to put an end to fake mobile images and videoshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/witness-fake-photos-app-informaCam/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/4d/5e/4d5e4b1408f87e0ef19c71fccf6398db.jpg'></p><p>
If there&#39;s one thing the media loves, it&#39;s compelling images of breaking news shot on location in real time.</p>
<p>
If there&#39;s one thing they hate, it&#39;s correcting themselves after the fact.</p>
<p>
It&#39;s an all too common cycle in the age of digital news: user-submitted footage taken with a mobile camera purporting to show a real event later turns out to be exaggerated or flat-out fabricated. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/10-fake-photos-hurricane-sandy-frankenstorm/">Hurricane Sandy</a> is the most notable recent example of this phenomenon from which <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/25/venezuela-el-pais-hugo-chavez">not even world leaders were spared</a>.</p>
<p>
But now one group is <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/01/is-it-real-witness-builds-an-app-to-verify-user-submitted-content/">trying to bring a little more transparency to the process</a> with a new app and metadata standard that promises auto-verification of a photo&#39;s legitimacy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
&quot;There&#39;s a lot of citizen-shot media coming into news desks around the world,&quot; said Bryan Nunez, a technology manager with the human rights advocacy group <a href="http://www.witness.org/">Witness</a>, which is developing the app. &ldquo;All kinds of stuff is coming off YouTube where the reporters say &#39;This appears to show x, y and z &hellip; but we can&#39;t verify it. But they show it anyway.&quot;</p>
<p>
Nunez told the Daily Dot that ensuring the authenticity of mobile images is a critical priority for Witness, which is dedicated to bringing attention to human rights abuses around the globe through documentation. In war-torn nations like Syria, Libya, and Egypt, controlling information has become a key part of the battle. The ability to ensure a video is documenting the event it claims to, and that it hasn&#39;t been tampered with, is important for getting an honest representation of events in geopolitical hotspots where the truth is hard to come by.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.witness.org/2013/01/how-informacam-improves-verification-of-mobile-media-files/">The InformaCam App</a>, which is currently in alpha testing, is a joint project between Witness and the <a href="https://guardianproject.info/">Guardian Project</a> that has been in development for more than a year. The app is being funded by a $320,000 grant from the Knight Foundation as one of several winners of a mobile news development contest.</p>
<p>
Nunez said the app would take advantage of sensors already in most smart phones to help verify the conditions and locations in which videos are shot&mdash;using built in GPS, temperature, altitude and speed monitors. The app would also make use of an instantaneous backup feature, which automatically stores images and videos on a secure server as soon as they are taken. They are encrypted with a special digital signature that can be used to verify any changes or doctoring that might occur after the fact.</p>
<p>
The app is not just designed for news outlets to ensure accuracy. Nunez said human rights groups will also benefit. He cited a case from Sri Lanka in 2010, where the U.N. spent months trying to verify the authenticity of a video purporting to show the government execution of Tamil rebels.</p>
<p>
&quot;Thousands of man hours were spent examining every frame of this video&mdash;the angle of the sun, the location&mdash;everything was scrutinized for months,&quot; Nunez said.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/sri-lanka-execution-video_n_416042.html">The U.N. ultimately decided the video was real. </a></p>
<p>
However, the app still has a way to go in the development process. One of the biggest challenges is establishing the back-end infrastructure for the site in the volatile regions where the app is expected to do the most good. Nunez said Witness is working with local humanitarian groups to set up the necessary servers and other infrastructure.</p>
<p>
In the end, it&#39;s unclear what shape the app will take. Although the alpha version is available on Android, Nunez said InformaCam is more about promoting the new <a href="http://j3m.info/">JSON Evidentiary Mobile Media Metadata standard</a>. The J3M standard, as it is sometimes called, provides more information about how a photo or piece of footage was gathered. It&#39;s Witness&#39;s hope that J3M will become a standard format in all mobile photos and videos, similar to traditional formats like JPEGs and TIFFs. That way, users wouldn&#39;t have to even download an actual InformaCam App; the data would already be embedded in sites like Instagram and Youtube.</p>
<p>
&quot;Hopefully we see fewer and fewer of these phony images on the news,&quot; Nunez said.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151121878712756&amp;set=a.26428092755.38196.733732755&amp;type=1&amp;theater"><em>Jason Otts</em></a><em>/Facebook</em></p>
tim@dailydot.com (Tim Sampson)Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:23:50 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/witness-fake-photos-app-informaCam/NewsWhat we searched for in 2012http://www.dailydot.com/society/google-zeitgeist-top-search-terms-2012/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ff/16/ff169c548d8f90d52d523146178eb0dd.jpg'></p><p>
Google has finally told us what was truly important in 2012.</p>
<p>
The search giant&rsquo;s annual <a href="http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world">Zeitgeist list</a> shows the things what we searched for the most for over the past year. It&rsquo;s accompanied by a quite enjoyable and downright motivational video, which displays the year&rsquo;s most important events through a Google lense. Thanks, Google, for briefly helping us forget about all those terrible end-of-the-world jokes on Twitter.</p>
<p>
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xY_MUB8adEQ?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p>
Here are the top 10 worldwide search terms (if you&rsquo;re not sure what any of these are, we suggest Googling them):</p>
<p>
1. Whitney Houston<br />
2. Gangnam Style<br />
3. Hurricane Sandy<br />
4. iPad 3<br />
5. Diablo 3<br />
6. Kate Middleton<br />
7. Olympics 2012<br />
8. Amanda Todd<br />
9. Michael Clarke Duncan<br />
10. BBB12</p>
<p>
If you&rsquo;re interested in other search categories, like sports, celebrities, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world/google-hashtags">Google+ hashtags</a> (huh?), check out the full set <a href="http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world">here</a>.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY_MUB8adEQ&amp;feature=youtu.be">Google</a>/YouTube</em></p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:10:44 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/google-zeitgeist-top-search-terms-2012/SocietyFacebook group matches Sandy victims with Thanksgiving hostshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/71/be/71beaf80d422869016c64d227aa0e257.jpg'></p><p>
For victims of superstorm Sandy, this Thanksgiving will be difficult, but a Facebook group is hoping to alleviate some of the pain.</p>
<p>
Ellie Aichele, of Toms River N.J., started<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner"> the &ldquo;Hurricane Sandy Thanksgiving Adopt a Family for Dinner&rdquo;</a> group to pair up people affected by the storm with families hosting Thanksgiving dinners.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;With the televised visions of the heartbreaking losses from Hurricane Sandy, that have affected so many in NJ and NY, I have decided that I would like to help by matching people in need with families willing to invite them into their homes for a homemade (or store bought) Thanksgiving Dinner,&rdquo; Aichele wrote on the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/241600082634986"> first post</a> Nov. 5. &ldquo;Let&#39;s offer these families something that they can be truly thankful for during this season of giving.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Those interested in helping can post messages on the Facebook group&rsquo;s wall, and Aichele has also contacted local organizations, like the Red Cross, to see if there are interested families.<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57552201/sandy-affected-residents-find-ways-to-give-thanks/"> She told CBS News</a> she&rsquo;s heard from 50 families offering to let Sandy victims take part in their Thanksgiving festivities. She also lauded the generosity some of the volunteers are offering.</p>
<p>
&quot;I had one woman who offered not only her home for dinner,&quot; Aichele said, &quot;They&#39;re providing transportation, offering guests to stay overnight, take a shower. They have restored my faith in humanity. They just can&#39;t do enough.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
The group has racked up 600 likes in its few weeks of existence, and posts have ranged from the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247326115395716"> heartbreaking</a> to the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247120965416231"> heartwarming</a>, reenforcing that it&rsquo;s still a dire situation for many.</p>
<p>
Even today, posts on the group&rsquo;s wall are still offering to host displaced residents. &ldquo;Would like to host dinner for a family for today. I live in Kingston NY and will come and pick up ASAP,&rdquo;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247588325369495"> offered</a> Vincent Conigliaro.</p>
<p>
Aichele said she plans to keep the group running through Christmas, because the huge response it received is &ldquo;warming [her] heart.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via unclesam916/<a href="http://hashgr.am/image/330342552267256208_28526403">Hashgram</a></em></p>
jordan-valinsky-1Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:12:02 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/NewsSocietyFacebookFacebook group matches Sandy victims with Thanksgiving hostshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/71/be/71beaf80d422869016c64d227aa0e257.jpg'></p><p>
For victims of superstorm Sandy, this Thanksgiving will be difficult, but a Facebook group is hoping to alleviate some of the pain.</p>
<p>
Ellie Aichele, of Toms River N.J., started<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner"> the &ldquo;Hurricane Sandy Thanksgiving Adopt a Family for Dinner&rdquo;</a> group to pair up people affected by the storm with families hosting Thanksgiving dinners.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;With the televised visions of the heartbreaking losses from Hurricane Sandy, that have affected so many in NJ and NY, I have decided that I would like to help by matching people in need with families willing to invite them into their homes for a homemade (or store bought) Thanksgiving Dinner,&rdquo; Aichele wrote on the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/241600082634986"> first post</a> Nov. 5. &ldquo;Let&#39;s offer these families something that they can be truly thankful for during this season of giving.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Those interested in helping can post messages on the Facebook group&rsquo;s wall, and Aichele has also contacted local organizations, like the Red Cross, to see if there are interested families.<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57552201/sandy-affected-residents-find-ways-to-give-thanks/"> She told CBS News</a> she&rsquo;s heard from 50 families offering to let Sandy victims take part in their Thanksgiving festivities. She also lauded the generosity some of the volunteers are offering.</p>
<p>
&quot;I had one woman who offered not only her home for dinner,&quot; Aichele said, &quot;They&#39;re providing transportation, offering guests to stay overnight, take a shower. They have restored my faith in humanity. They just can&#39;t do enough.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
The group has racked up 600 likes in its few weeks of existence, and posts have ranged from the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247326115395716"> heartbreaking</a> to the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247120965416231"> heartwarming</a>, reenforcing that it&rsquo;s still a dire situation for many.</p>
<p>
Even today, posts on the group&rsquo;s wall are still offering to host displaced residents. &ldquo;Would like to host dinner for a family for today. I live in Kingston NY and will come and pick up ASAP,&rdquo;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247588325369495"> offered</a> Vincent Conigliaro.</p>
<p>
Aichele said she plans to keep the group running through Christmas, because the huge response it received is &ldquo;warming [her] heart.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via unclesam916/<a href="http://hashgr.am/image/330342552267256208_28526403">Hashgram</a></em></p>
jordan-valinsky-1Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:12:02 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/NewsSocietyFacebookFacebook group matches Sandy victims with Thanksgiving hostshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/71/be/71beaf80d422869016c64d227aa0e257.jpg'></p><p>
For victims of superstorm Sandy, this Thanksgiving will be difficult, but a Facebook group is hoping to alleviate some of the pain.</p>
<p>
Ellie Aichele, of Toms River N.J., started<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner"> the &ldquo;Hurricane Sandy Thanksgiving Adopt a Family for Dinner&rdquo;</a> group to pair up people affected by the storm with families hosting Thanksgiving dinners.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;With the televised visions of the heartbreaking losses from Hurricane Sandy, that have affected so many in NJ and NY, I have decided that I would like to help by matching people in need with families willing to invite them into their homes for a homemade (or store bought) Thanksgiving Dinner,&rdquo; Aichele wrote on the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/241600082634986"> first post</a> Nov. 5. &ldquo;Let&#39;s offer these families something that they can be truly thankful for during this season of giving.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Those interested in helping can post messages on the Facebook group&rsquo;s wall, and Aichele has also contacted local organizations, like the Red Cross, to see if there are interested families.<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57552201/sandy-affected-residents-find-ways-to-give-thanks/"> She told CBS News</a> she&rsquo;s heard from 50 families offering to let Sandy victims take part in their Thanksgiving festivities. She also lauded the generosity some of the volunteers are offering.</p>
<p>
&quot;I had one woman who offered not only her home for dinner,&quot; Aichele said, &quot;They&#39;re providing transportation, offering guests to stay overnight, take a shower. They have restored my faith in humanity. They just can&#39;t do enough.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
The group has racked up 600 likes in its few weeks of existence, and posts have ranged from the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247326115395716"> heartbreaking</a> to the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247120965416231"> heartwarming</a>, reenforcing that it&rsquo;s still a dire situation for many.</p>
<p>
Even today, posts on the group&rsquo;s wall are still offering to host displaced residents. &ldquo;Would like to host dinner for a family for today. I live in Kingston NY and will come and pick up ASAP,&rdquo;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HurricaneSandyThanksgivingAdoptAFamilyForDinner/posts/247588325369495"> offered</a> Vincent Conigliaro.</p>
<p>
Aichele said she plans to keep the group running through Christmas, because the huge response it received is &ldquo;warming [her] heart.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via unclesam916/<a href="http://hashgr.am/image/330342552267256208_28526403">Hashgram</a></em></p>
jordan-valinsky-1Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:12:02 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hurricane-sandy-thanksgiving-dinner-group/NewsSocietyFacebookThe Blackout Experience: Why socializing without the Internet is terrifyinghttp://www.dailydot.com/via/blackout-experience-socializing-without-Internet/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/66/a1/66a19800c9fa89558b57efc698971b06.jpg'></p><p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
What do you do? It is only 6 o&rsquo;clock and it is dark out. It has been dark in your apartment for the past three hours. There is nothing to do. You tried reading a book. You read out of necessity and not for leisure. It does not take your mind off things. Somewhere, out there, something is happening and you&rsquo;re stuck here, reading a book. You stop after a couple of pages. You wish you had a magazine instead, something with pictures.</p>
<p>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Earlier you walked to the only working pay phone in the West Village to call a friend. &ldquo;What are they saying?&rdquo; you asked her. &ldquo;Three more days,&rdquo; she told you. She invited you over for a warm meal and a shower. She doesn&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s been like. Your will is broken. You have enough energy to walk five blocks to the pay phone, but not across the Brooklyn Bridge. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be fine,&rdquo; you told her. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a lot of reading done.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/13/Screen_shot_2012-11-12_at_9.24.06_PM.png" style="width: 400px; height: 208px; margin: 5px; float: right;" />You&rsquo;re not getting much of anything done. It is now 6:10. You&rsquo;ve been staring at your TV&rsquo;s dark screen for the past ten minutes. You don&rsquo;t remember what it&rsquo;s like to be able to watch TV. It seems foreign. You make another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You guiltily eye the wine. Three bottles in two days. &ldquo;Should I?&rdquo; you ask yourself. Why not? There are no rules in the blackout, just hours. You could always nap again. It doesn&rsquo;t matter if it&rsquo;s six in the morning or six at night. The hours spill over into each other, like a flood. You are aware of only two conditions: sunup and sundown. No, not even so: it is all dusk.</span></p>
<p>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Last night you decided to go out and have the &ldquo;blackout experience.&rdquo; You&rsquo;ve heard people talk about the blackout experience from previous blackouts. You, too, want to bond with strangers. You&rsquo;re lucky. The restaurant at the corner is open. You usually don&rsquo;t go there because it&rsquo;s overpriced but you&rsquo;ve been eating peanut butter for two days straight and you would kill for a tomato. </span></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0px; ">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">You take a seat at the bar, next to an attractive young man. You spotted him even before you walked in, from the window. His unshaved face was illuminated by the candlelight. You get your hopes up. This could turn into a romantic blackout experience. The bartender greets you and pours you a glass of wine. You catch your reflection in the mirror behind the bar. You become conscious of your not having showered in three days, and are grateful it&rsquo;s dark. You contemplate going to the bathroom to apply some lipstick, but remember you have trouble applying lipstick even when you can see. You sip your wine and are eager for the blackout experience to begin but no one is talking. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t believe it&rsquo;s only seven o&rsquo;clock,&rdquo; you say. The attractive guy nods but does not engage. Instead, a guy you had not noticed at all, from two stools down, chimes in. He was reading his Kindle, but was looking for an excuse to turn it off. No one wants to read in a blackout, but we all pretend to be reading. The door opens and a petite brunette walks in. She kisses the attractive guy. He pays and they leave. You are disappointed. This is not a Katherine Heigl movie, you remind yourself, this is real life. You order the hummus.</span></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0px; ">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"></span></p>
<p>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Another two glasses and it&rsquo;s just you and the Kindle guy left at the bar. His name is Jeff. He is showing you pictures of his hometown in New Jersey on his phone. You don&rsquo;t recall why&mdash;something about Kevin Smith. You had assumed he was gay but now you&rsquo;re not so sure. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go to that little bar around the corner,&rdquo; he suggests, &ldquo;for a change of scenery.&rdquo; You agree because you may not be having &ldquo;the&rdquo; blackout experience, but at least you&rsquo;re having &ldquo;a&rdquo; blackout experience. The little bar around the corner is lined with tea lights, and the owner is friendly. You are his first customers. He pours you two shots of Jameson. Jeff kisses you. He is a terrible kisser. You still think he might be gay. You start playing music on your iPhone. You don&rsquo;t care about saving the battery any more. You are tired of saving batteries. The bar slowly fills up. People start playing charades: the ones sitting at the tables versus those at the bar. You&rsquo;re too drunk to partake, and Jeff keeps trying to kiss you. A man walks up to the bar and orders tater tots. In the dark he looks like Simon Le Bon. You&rsquo;re convinced he is Simon Le Bon. Another shot of Jameson. Your eyes can only focus on the foreground, the rest becomes blurry. Simon Le Bon offers you a tater tot. You take it. You ask him if he&rsquo;s from the 80s. You offer Jeff a tater tot. He looks green. &ldquo;Are you going to throw up?&rdquo; you say. He does. You decide to call it a night. You take a flashlight out of your purse and walk home. You reach the front door. The long hallways are pitch black. You start climbing stairs. You climb, turn into a dark hallway, climb again, turn into a dark hallway. You try not to think what could be lurking beyond the small bright circle of your flashlight. You climb, you turn, you follow the circle. You sing a children&rsquo;s song to calm yourself. That somehow makes the hallways seem creepier. You reach your door, fumble with the keys. You check behind your back with the flashlight a couple of times. You finally open the door and hurry in to close it.</span></p>
<p>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It is colder in your apartment than it was outside. The feeling of unease doesn&rsquo;t leave you. This place doesn&rsquo;t feel like your home. For the first time in how many years, you realize it is small. Very small and very dark. &ldquo;It has character,&rdquo; you used to say. &ldquo;It is cozy.&rdquo; But it is a rat hole, really. You&rsquo;ve been living in a rat hole this entire time. You light a votive candle. It is green&mdash;nobody wanted the green candles, they were the only color left at the bodega. You admit you wouldn&rsquo;t have picked green had you had the choice. You light another candle. This one&rsquo;s an aromatic one&mdash;apple spice. Again, you had no choice. It was down to that and a musical one that played Silent Night when lit up. You make yourself another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You brush your teeth with ice-cold water, forgo washing your face. You remove your clothes, then put on other clothes you can sleep in: sweatpants over your pajamas, hoodies over t-shirts, socks over socks. You pile on the blankets. The place smells like apple spice but you&rsquo;re freezing. You check the time. It is 10 o&rsquo;clock.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>
<em>Sophia Efthimiatou is originally from Athens, Greece. Her work has&nbsp;appeared in</em><em>&nbsp;</em>Monkeybicycle<em>, </em>The Chattahoochee Review<em>, </em>The Louisville Review, Granta Online,&nbsp;<em>and</em> McSweeney&#39;s, <em>among other publications. She&nbsp;lives in New York City with no pets.</em></p>
<p>
<em>Photograph by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_ewan/5002629108/">The Ewan</a></em></p>
<dd.feed.feeds.NoneAuthor object at 0x7f9856b00f10>Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/blackout-experience-socializing-without-Internet/ViaMayor Cory Booker scores free Hot Pockets for Newark residentshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/mayor-cory-booker-hot-pockets-newark/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ee/de/eedee8b574f881cd8ddea2a36fa8fa8c.jpg'></p><p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Newark, N.J. mayor Corey Booker continues to build his &ldquo;good guy&rdquo; cred on the Internet&mdash; and this time, he&rsquo;s doing it with Hot Pockets.</p>
<p>
Booker, who has made headlines in the past for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/cory-booker-neighbors-hurricane-sandy_n_2059971.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular">personally assisting his constituents</a>, noticed a Nov. 1 tweet in the wake of Hurricane Sandy made by user <a href="https://twitter.com/DAT_NIGGA_REEE">Tyree Humes</a>. The tweet read:</p>
<p>
&ldquo;<a href="https://twitter.com/CoryBooker">@CoryBooker</a> a my nigga i m running out of hotpockets to put in the oven.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Booker immediately tweeted back:</p>
<p>
&ldquo;I believe in you. I know this is a problem you can handle.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Upon seeing the exchange, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hotpockets">Hot Pockets</a> division at Nestl&eacute; itself took action. In a letter dated Nov. 3, the company offered the mayor free coupons for anyone he felt could use them. Additionally, Humes received a number of coupons as well.</p>
<p>
Booker tweeted his thanks to both the corporation and Humes.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;.<a href="https://twitter.com/DAT_NIGGA_REEE">@DAT_NIGGA_REEE</a> thx 2 ur tweet + <a href="https://twitter.com/hotpockets">@HotPockets</a> generosity Newarkers now have plenty of hot pockets to put in the oven,&rdquo; Booker tweeted, adding a photo of himself holding a Hot Pocket.</p>
<p>
Booker and his city, now knee-deep in microwavable sandwiches, earned accolades and criticism alike on Twitter.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;This hot pockets incident? One of many reason <a href="https://twitter.com/CoryBooker">@corybooker</a> is the country&#39;s best mayor. Good things just happen for ppl when you keep it real,&rdquo; tweeted <a href="https://twitter.com/JEvansJD">Jonathan D. Evans</a>.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Don&#39;t worry Newark NJ you may have no power from a hurricane but mayor Cory Booker got you free coupons for microwave hotpockets,&rdquo; tweeted Billy O&rsquo;Keefe.</p>
<p>
It does not appear that residents in other cities affected by Hurricane Sandy, including New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, requested Hot Pockets from their own mayors, and no one on Twitter appears to have taken the demand for the &ldquo;hot meal without a big deal&rdquo; to the President or any federal agency.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthony1732/5947763253/">Retailmania</a>/Flickr</em></p>
mike@thedailydot.com (Mike Fenn)Tue, 13 Nov 2012 00:52:01 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/mayor-cory-booker-hot-pockets-newark/NewsTwitterHumans of New York Tumblr raises $85,000 for Sandy reliefhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/humans-new-york-hurricane-relief-fundraiser/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/67/17/67171000a25778f55882fd4c3163a5d6.jpg'></p><p>
<a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/about">Humans of New York</a> (HONY), a popular Tumblr by photographer Brandon Stanton, has raised nearly&nbsp;<a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/HONYTumblr?c=home">$85,000</a> in less than 24 hours for Hurricane Sandy relief.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;All of the blog&rsquo;s content will be dedicated to telling the stories of people affected by the storm,&rdquo; Stanton wrote in a Tumblr post Sunday that has since collected <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/35533324289/hey-guys-for-the-next-ten-days-im-going-to-be">2,500 notes</a>. &ldquo;Sandy left behind a lot of sad stories, but also some happy ones. We&rsquo;re going to try to tell them all.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Over the last two years, Stanton&rsquo;s photography blog has become a mainstay on Tumblr. Its purpose is to &ldquo;construct a photographic census of New York City,&rdquo; one person at a time. To date he has captured over 5,000 photographs of New Yorkers going about their everyday lives.</p>
<p>
Following the storm, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/humans-new-york-brandon-stanton-sandy/">Stanton took to the streets</a> of New York to photograph the devastation and people who refused to be kept down. One photo features a man standing amidst the rubble of his house, who told Stanton of his gratitude toward the police officers who forcibly evacuated him.</p>
<p>
HONY has partnered with <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/HONYTumblr">Tumblr for the fundraiser</a> and is providing stickers and tote bags for $15 and $30 respectively. Other fundraiser perks include a signed 8 x 12 signed photo print for $100 and a chance to follow Stanton around New York for $2,000 as he searches for people to photograph. All of the donations will go to the <a href="http://www.tunneltotowersrun.org/">Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation</a>, which has been hard at work helping to feed and clothe those in need.</p>
<p>
The goal of the fundraiser is to collect $100,000 in the next 10 days.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Donating to a great cause! The sentiment behind HONY and the spirit that is already helping to rebuild these communities are perfectly aligned,&rdquo; Marian Shelley commented on the <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/HONYTumblr?c=comments">fundraiser&#39;s Indiegogo page</a>. &ldquo;They are an affirmation that kindness and empathy still matter in this city!&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo by <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/35022704806/firefighters-from-fdny-engine-228-when-i-was">Brandon Stanton</a>/Tumblr</em></p>
fernando@dailydot.com (Fernando Alfonso III)Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:21:48 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/humans-new-york-hurricane-relief-fundraiser/NewsTumblrMorning GIF: Let there be lighthttp://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f5/e8/f5e83dee0e2d90125c61d436c4860cdf.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we&rsquo;re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular&mdash;or just plain cool&mdash;GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.</em></p>
<p>
Welcome back, Eastern Seaboard!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/">Getting over Sandy&rsquo;s visit</a> is taking a little bit longer than expected. At her worst, she was a fatal force; at her best she was the drunken aunt who staggers through your house smashing crockery and relationships, then sweeps out never to be seen again but entered into legend. It&rsquo;s a relief to everyone when she&rsquo;s gone, even though we all do nothing but talk about her for the next five years.</p>
<p>
Even though parts of the coastline remain in the dark, power, that marvelous modern metaphor, has been restored to most of the stricken areas. <a href="http://hydrotoxicity.tumblr.com/post/16357812444">This GIF</a> on Ignorance is Bliss embodies the post-Sandy revival of downtowns north and south. Raise a light and join in the 46,759 waving accolades so far.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/12/Downtown.gif" /></p>
raincoaster@dailydot.com (Lorraine Murphy)Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:19:38 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/UpstreamTumblrMorning GIF: Let there be lighthttp://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f5/e8/f5e83dee0e2d90125c61d436c4860cdf.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we&rsquo;re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular&mdash;or just plain cool&mdash;GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.</em></p>
<p>
Welcome back, Eastern Seaboard!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/">Getting over Sandy&rsquo;s visit</a> is taking a little bit longer than expected. At her worst, she was a fatal force; at her best she was the drunken aunt who staggers through your house smashing crockery and relationships, then sweeps out never to be seen again but entered into legend. It&rsquo;s a relief to everyone when she&rsquo;s gone, even though we all do nothing but talk about her for the next five years.</p>
<p>
Even though parts of the coastline remain in the dark, power, that marvelous modern metaphor, has been restored to most of the stricken areas. <a href="http://hydrotoxicity.tumblr.com/post/16357812444">This GIF</a> on Ignorance is Bliss embodies the post-Sandy revival of downtowns north and south. Raise a light and join in the 46,759 waving accolades so far.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/12/Downtown.gif" /></p>
raincoaster@dailydot.com (Lorraine Murphy)Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:19:38 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/UpstreamTumblrMorning GIF: Let there be lighthttp://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f5/e8/f5e83dee0e2d90125c61d436c4860cdf.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we&rsquo;re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular&mdash;or just plain cool&mdash;GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.</em></p>
<p>
Welcome back, Eastern Seaboard!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/">Getting over Sandy&rsquo;s visit</a> is taking a little bit longer than expected. At her worst, she was a fatal force; at her best she was the drunken aunt who staggers through your house smashing crockery and relationships, then sweeps out never to be seen again but entered into legend. It&rsquo;s a relief to everyone when she&rsquo;s gone, even though we all do nothing but talk about her for the next five years.</p>
<p>
Even though parts of the coastline remain in the dark, power, that marvelous modern metaphor, has been restored to most of the stricken areas. <a href="http://hydrotoxicity.tumblr.com/post/16357812444">This GIF</a> on Ignorance is Bliss embodies the post-Sandy revival of downtowns north and south. Raise a light and join in the 46,759 waving accolades so far.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/12/Downtown.gif" /></p>
raincoaster@dailydot.com (Lorraine Murphy)Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:19:38 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/upstream/morning-gif-downtown-light/UpstreamTumblrFormer US Rep. Anthony Weiner is back on Twitterhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/anthony-weiner-twitter-return/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/33/54/3354e13f56edbbc6523637aea83b2bee.jpg'></p><p>
Twitter&#39;s most famous penis pusher is back, and it only took him 18 months.</p>
<p>
Former United States Representative Anthony Weiner (D-New York), whose popularity and pitfalls can be mutually attributed to his unrivaled candidness on the microblogging service, made a quiet return to Twitter on Wednesday, posting a link to a YouTube video detailing a<a href="https://twitter.com/RepWeiner/status/266192356708077568"> need for relief after Hurricane Sandy hit New York&#39;s Rockaway Beach</a>.</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/8/Screen_Shot_2012-11-09_at_8.59.02_AM.png" /></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
The tweet was Weiner&#39;s first since he infamously posted a<a href="http://gawker.com/5809909/anthony-weiners-cock-shot-emerges"> picture of his penis</a> in his newsfeed last May.</p>
<p>
Back then, the fallout that followed was massive. Weiner naturally took a national degree of heat for posting the photo&mdash;which he declared was intended as a private message to a woman in Seattle&mdash;and resigned from Congress a month later.</p>
<p>
His verified Twitter account, once a beacon of laid-back light in a sea of stuffy Congressional darkness, went bye-bye with the position.</p>
<p>
No word on if Weiner&rsquo;s account will return to its<a href="https://twitter.com/RepWeiner/status/74331714717093888"> hockey-following</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/RepWeiner/status/74217348558622720"> Rachel Maddow-clowning</a> ways, but we can be sure of one thing: should the one-time politician choose to use @RepWeiner for, ahem, personal conversation in the future, he&#39;ll be sure to double check that he&#39;s sending Miss Seattle a direct message.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="https://twitter.com/RepWeiner/with_replies">Anthony Weiner</a>/Twitter</em></p>
chase@dailydot.com (Chase Hoffberger)Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:32:22 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/anthony-weiner-twitter-return/NewsTwitterMorning GIF: Up and runninghttp://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ee/54/ee54ce7cf9a45772833b9708e9355508.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we&rsquo;re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular&mdash;or just plain cool&mdash;GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.</em></p>
<p>
For survivors of a state of emergency, there&rsquo;s an unforgettable sensation of elevation on watching the first lights wink back on after the blackout. Thanks to <a href="http://ex-genius.tumblr.com/">Jonny of the Ex-Genius Tumblr</a>, we can all savor that feeling in some small, sympathetic sense.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
He&rsquo;s created an animated map of the New York City subway system showing the different lines coming to life over the period of Nov. 1-5. From the Manhattan heart, like arteries carrying the lifeblood of of the country&rsquo;s markets, media, and moneymaking, they grow daily longer, more networked, more robust, until the network is complete and the city&rsquo;s circulation is restored.</p>
<p>
This <a href="http://ex-genius.tumblr.com/post/35084095853/animation-of-the-subway-springing-back-to-life">marvel of GIF</a> engineering, echoing actual marvels of engineering and hundreds or thousands of hours of physical work, has 408 notes, and never fails to arrive on time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/7/NYC_Subway_rebirt.gif" /></p>
raincoaster@dailydot.com (Lorraine Murphy)Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:36:50 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/SocietyTumblrMorning GIF: Up and runninghttp://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ee/54/ee54ce7cf9a45772833b9708e9355508.jpg'></p><p>
<em>Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we&rsquo;re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular&mdash;or just plain cool&mdash;GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.</em></p>
<p>
For survivors of a state of emergency, there&rsquo;s an unforgettable sensation of elevation on watching the first lights wink back on after the blackout. Thanks to <a href="http://ex-genius.tumblr.com/">Jonny of the Ex-Genius Tumblr</a>, we can all savor that feeling in some small, sympathetic sense.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
He&rsquo;s created an animated map of the New York City subway system showing the different lines coming to life over the period of Nov. 1-5. From the Manhattan heart, like arteries carrying the lifeblood of of the country&rsquo;s markets, media, and moneymaking, they grow daily longer, more networked, more robust, until the network is complete and the city&rsquo;s circulation is restored.</p>
<p>
This <a href="http://ex-genius.tumblr.com/post/35084095853/animation-of-the-subway-springing-back-to-life">marvel of GIF</a> engineering, echoing actual marvels of engineering and hundreds or thousands of hours of physical work, has 408 notes, and never fails to arrive on time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/7/NYC_Subway_rebirt.gif" /></p>
raincoaster@dailydot.com (Lorraine Murphy)Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:36:50 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/society/morning-gif-nyc-subway-mta/SocietyTumblrNew Jersey's emergency email voting option runs into problemshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/new-jersey-emergency-email-voting-problems/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/b9/09/b9094fdee0913a9c2b1fe091a85c1925.jpg'></p><p>
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy&mdash;with destruction of buildings, electrical lines and streets especially strong on the New Jersey coast&mdash;officials in that state <a href="http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/552012/approved/20121103d.html">decided to provide</a> email and fax voting to the beleaguered residents. The state has extended to victims of the storm the same distance-voting rights members of the military and expatriates use.</p>
<p>
It&rsquo;s not working well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
The email addresses provided, both to request email ballots (which must be done by 5:00 PM today) and to send them in, are widely reported to be full, triggering a bounce. According to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/email-voting-fails-some-new-jersey-residents">BuzzFeed</a>, in two New Jersey counties, Morris and Essex, the county clerks&rsquo; email addresses are not receiving email. Essex County contains NJ&rsquo;s largest city, Newark, and Morris County is adjacent to New York City.</p>
<p>
In other counties, reports have surfaced that some of those who have succeeded in sending their ballots in via email without a bounce have not gotten confirmation that their votes have been received.</p>
<p>
Some security experts have registered concerns about email voting, even when it goes as expected. <a href="http://news.discovery.com/tech/email-voting-new-jersey-121106.html">Discovery News</a> quoted <a href="http://www.crypto.com/blog/njvoting/">Matt Blaze</a> asking, &ldquo;How will the emailed ballots be secured against tampering or loss? Email messages themselves have no intrinsic protection against modification, forgery, copying or deletion when in transit.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Given the now-customary litigious phase after a major election, it would not be surprising to see the loser of today&rsquo;s presidential election, and the losing sides in other races and measures, press their advantage in the courts. They may maintain that there are missing ballots and those ballots would have carried their candidate or cause over the line to victory.</p>
<p>
Alternatively, as pointed up on the <a href="https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/appel/nj-lt-governor-invites-voters-to-submit-invalid-ballots/">Freedom to Tinker</a> blog by Prof. Andrew Apple of Princeton University, a case could be made that without the step of mailing in the original paper ballot, mandated by New Jersey&rsquo;s Overseas Absentee Voting Law, all email and fax votes successfully sent in this way are legally invalid. Since Apple&rsquo;s post, spokesmen for the New Jersey State Department have insisted that such instructions will be sent out, to validate the ballots.</p>
<p>
Regardless, the email voting option will certainly provide grist to the mill that pumps out voter fraud conspiracies.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/8151149663/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region/Flickr</a></em></p>
curthopkins@gmail.com (Curt Hopkins)Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:28:57 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/new-jersey-emergency-email-voting-problems/NewsBrooklyn residents use Amazon's Wedding Registry for hurricane reliefhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/amazon-hurricane-sandy-wedding-registry-donations/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/15/8b/158b29efdd81d616ee9d126f376fa79e.jpg'></p><p>
In the wake of <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/hurricane-sandy-instagram-800000-photos/">Hurricane Sandy</a>, many are looking for ways to donate supplies to the victims throughout New York and New Jersey. Thanks to a trio from Brooklyn, there&rsquo;s an virtual wish list for donations.</p>
<p>
John Heggestuen, Alex Nordenson, and Katherine Dolan are not getting married, but they&rsquo;re taking advantage of Amazon&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/registry/wedding/32TAA123PJR42">Wedding Registry</a> to create a shopping list for specific items needed at a local relief outpost.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We are Brooklyn residents and are in touch with the Occupy Sandy team who will receive the shipped items and organize daily deliveries to priority response areas,&rdquo; they wrote. &ldquo;We are updating the registry as we get updates on what is needed most in affected areas.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<a href="http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/">Occupy Sandy</a> consists of members from Occupy Wall Street, 350.org, recovers.org, and interoccupy.net who are working together in order to distribute supplies and get volunteers to the neighborhoods affected by the hurricane, particularly <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206492888572549024713.0004cdadcaea40cfa4c9d&amp;msa=0">throughout the boroughs</a> of New York City.</p>
<p>
The registry emerged as the result of a brainstorming effort from when the three volunteered at a church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;John thought we needed a way for people out of town to help out and so he asked if the church could accept shipments,&rdquo; Dolan told the Daily Dot in an email. &ldquo;Alex then thought of an online wedding registry structure that would help improve mass awareness of the most urgent needs and give people (local and national) an avenue to donate to a specific (and legitimate) distribution center.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry5.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 638px; " /><br />
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry2.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 467px; " /><br />
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry4.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 563px; " /></p>
<p>
Dolan, Heggestuen, and Nordenson shared the registry with family and friends through Facebook and email and started to reach out on Twitter. By the time they woke up on Sunday, the registry went viral.</p>
<p>
If you don&rsquo;t know what supplies the victims need or if you&rsquo;re too far away to donate the supplies to the affected areas yourself, just take a peek at this untypical wedding registry that anyone can use and donate with the click of a button.</p>
<p>
Instead of silverware, they ask for flashlights and diapers. Instead of a blender, they&rsquo;ve requested a miniature refrigerator. Dozens of other supplies like towels, toothpaste, garbage bags, shampoo, and other toiletries are available for purchase. Just don&rsquo;t gift wrap any of the items.</p>
<p>
And while other shipping options may be cheaper, timing is crucial.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;PLEASE pay for the most expedited shipping - these items are needed ASAP!&rdquo; the group wrote.</p>
<p>
The Occupy Sandy volunteers plan to set up an inventory management team in order to make sure that all donations sent through the wedding registry have arrived and are accounted for, and they are currently trying to get Amazon to offer free shipping on the items featured in their wedding registry.</p>
<p>
They don&rsquo;t have an exact number of how many supplies have been purchased yet, but people are responding.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;People are loving the idea as it is so simple to help no matter where you live,&rdquo; Dolan said. &ldquo;We have received an overwhelming positive response and are so thankful.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33498942@N04/8151873158/">WarmSleepy</a>/Flick<strong>r</strong></em></p>
michelle@dailydot.com (Michelle Jaworski)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:41:50 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/amazon-hurricane-sandy-wedding-registry-donations/NewsAmazon.comSocietyBrooklyn residents use Amazon's Wedding Registry for hurricane reliefhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/amazon-hurricane-sandy-wedding-registry-donations/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/15/8b/158b29efdd81d616ee9d126f376fa79e.jpg'></p><p>
In the wake of <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/hurricane-sandy-instagram-800000-photos/">Hurricane Sandy</a>, many are looking for ways to donate supplies to the victims throughout New York and New Jersey. Thanks to a trio from Brooklyn, there&rsquo;s an virtual wish list for donations.</p>
<p>
John Heggestuen, Alex Nordenson, and Katherine Dolan are not getting married, but they&rsquo;re taking advantage of Amazon&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/registry/wedding/32TAA123PJR42">Wedding Registry</a> to create a shopping list for specific items needed at a local relief outpost.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We are Brooklyn residents and are in touch with the Occupy Sandy team who will receive the shipped items and organize daily deliveries to priority response areas,&rdquo; they wrote. &ldquo;We are updating the registry as we get updates on what is needed most in affected areas.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<a href="http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/">Occupy Sandy</a> consists of members from Occupy Wall Street, 350.org, recovers.org, and interoccupy.net who are working together in order to distribute supplies and get volunteers to the neighborhoods affected by the hurricane, particularly <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206492888572549024713.0004cdadcaea40cfa4c9d&amp;msa=0">throughout the boroughs</a> of New York City.</p>
<p>
The registry emerged as the result of a brainstorming effort from when the three volunteered at a church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;John thought we needed a way for people out of town to help out and so he asked if the church could accept shipments,&rdquo; Dolan told the Daily Dot in an email. &ldquo;Alex then thought of an online wedding registry structure that would help improve mass awareness of the most urgent needs and give people (local and national) an avenue to donate to a specific (and legitimate) distribution center.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry5.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 638px; " /><br />
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry2.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 467px; " /><br />
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/registry4.PNG" style="width: 630px; height: 563px; " /></p>
<p>
Dolan, Heggestuen, and Nordenson shared the registry with family and friends through Facebook and email and started to reach out on Twitter. By the time they woke up on Sunday, the registry went viral.</p>
<p>
If you don&rsquo;t know what supplies the victims need or if you&rsquo;re too far away to donate the supplies to the affected areas yourself, just take a peek at this untypical wedding registry that anyone can use and donate with the click of a button.</p>
<p>
Instead of silverware, they ask for flashlights and diapers. Instead of a blender, they&rsquo;ve requested a miniature refrigerator. Dozens of other supplies like towels, toothpaste, garbage bags, shampoo, and other toiletries are available for purchase. Just don&rsquo;t gift wrap any of the items.</p>
<p>
And while other shipping options may be cheaper, timing is crucial.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;PLEASE pay for the most expedited shipping - these items are needed ASAP!&rdquo; the group wrote.</p>
<p>
The Occupy Sandy volunteers plan to set up an inventory management team in order to make sure that all donations sent through the wedding registry have arrived and are accounted for, and they are currently trying to get Amazon to offer free shipping on the items featured in their wedding registry.</p>
<p>
They don&rsquo;t have an exact number of how many supplies have been purchased yet, but people are responding.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;People are loving the idea as it is so simple to help no matter where you live,&rdquo; Dolan said. &ldquo;We have received an overwhelming positive response and are so thankful.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33498942@N04/8151873158/">WarmSleepy</a>/Flick<strong>r</strong></em></p>
michelle@dailydot.com (Michelle Jaworski)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:41:50 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/amazon-hurricane-sandy-wedding-registry-donations/NewsAmazon.comSocietyTrolling Twitter to expose the media's racial biaseshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/74/ad/74adc6ed86b15ee9c701b31c5ed8ac45.jpg'></p><p>
The year&rsquo;s most embarrassing work of Web journalism has barely received the attention it deserves. We&rsquo;re talking about the <em>Daily Mail&rsquo;</em>s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225663/Superstom-Sandy-looters-brag-Twitter-Even-momma-got-outta-house-loot-new-shirt.html">piece on Twitter users bragging</a> about their post-Sandy looting conquests, which quotes several obviously fake accounts. <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/263725666531430401">The Drudge Report</a> and <a href="http://www.infowars.com/shameless-looters-display-stolen-goods-on-twitter/">Infowars</a> also picked up the story.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
It turns out these tweets, which climbed to international attention via the phony #SANDYLOOTCREW hashtag, weren&rsquo;t just random works of trolling: They were an organized effort put together by a group called the <a href="https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">Gay N**ger Association of America</a> (GNAA), an affiliate of hacker group Goatse Security.</p>
<p>
We don&rsquo;t want to dig into the depths of racial stereotyping that would lead a reporter to believe a tweet like this is real: &ldquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL.&rsquo;&rdquo; But nevertheless the <em>Daily Mail</em> earnestly reported on that tweet and other obviously fake posts&mdash;some of which used photographs taken as far back as 2005, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-works-up-a-storm-over-looting-images-20121101-28lqf.html#ixzz2B0hRjaqB">according</a> to a report in the <em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Catnapper: One person using the alias SevenleafB bragged about stealing a cat from a house during a looting-tour of New York,&rdquo; read the caption to the photograph of the allegedly stolen cat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/catstolen.jpg" style="width: 630px; height: 689px; " /></p>
<p>
It goes without saying that exposing racial biases was a big part of the GNAA&rsquo;s goal. BetaBeat <a href="http://betabeat.com/2012/11/less-looting-more-trolling-daily-mail-drudge-get-pwnd-by-twitter-pranksters/">posted</a> an excellent story earlier today that included an interview with one of the group members:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
&ldquo;To sum it up, myself and a few members of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">the GNAA</a> thought that it would be amusing to pretend to be looters,&rdquo; said Mr. Kaiser, who claims to be a 19-year-old African-American male living in New Mexico. &ldquo;One of us came up with the hashtag #SANDYLOOTCREW. We were making the most ridiculous tweets that we could think .. .people will believe literally anything, even us stealing cats.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
He added,&nbsp;&ldquo;Anyone who takes &lsquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL&rsquo; at face value probably shouldn&rsquo;t be working in the news industry.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Photo via <a href="about:blank">@StevenGazz</a>/Twitter</p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:00:42 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/NewsSocietyTwitterTrolling Twitter to expose the media's racial biaseshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/74/ad/74adc6ed86b15ee9c701b31c5ed8ac45.jpg'></p><p>
The year&rsquo;s most embarrassing work of Web journalism has barely received the attention it deserves. We&rsquo;re talking about the <em>Daily Mail&rsquo;</em>s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225663/Superstom-Sandy-looters-brag-Twitter-Even-momma-got-outta-house-loot-new-shirt.html">piece on Twitter users bragging</a> about their post-Sandy looting conquests, which quotes several obviously fake accounts. <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/263725666531430401">The Drudge Report</a> and <a href="http://www.infowars.com/shameless-looters-display-stolen-goods-on-twitter/">Infowars</a> also picked up the story.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
It turns out these tweets, which climbed to international attention via the phony #SANDYLOOTCREW hashtag, weren&rsquo;t just random works of trolling: They were an organized effort put together by a group called the <a href="https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">Gay N**ger Association of America</a> (GNAA), an affiliate of hacker group Goatse Security.</p>
<p>
We don&rsquo;t want to dig into the depths of racial stereotyping that would lead a reporter to believe a tweet like this is real: &ldquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL.&rsquo;&rdquo; But nevertheless the <em>Daily Mail</em> earnestly reported on that tweet and other obviously fake posts&mdash;some of which used photographs taken as far back as 2005, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-works-up-a-storm-over-looting-images-20121101-28lqf.html#ixzz2B0hRjaqB">according</a> to a report in the <em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Catnapper: One person using the alias SevenleafB bragged about stealing a cat from a house during a looting-tour of New York,&rdquo; read the caption to the photograph of the allegedly stolen cat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/catstolen.jpg" style="width: 630px; height: 689px; " /></p>
<p>
It goes without saying that exposing racial biases was a big part of the GNAA&rsquo;s goal. BetaBeat <a href="http://betabeat.com/2012/11/less-looting-more-trolling-daily-mail-drudge-get-pwnd-by-twitter-pranksters/">posted</a> an excellent story earlier today that included an interview with one of the group members:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
&ldquo;To sum it up, myself and a few members of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">the GNAA</a> thought that it would be amusing to pretend to be looters,&rdquo; said Mr. Kaiser, who claims to be a 19-year-old African-American male living in New Mexico. &ldquo;One of us came up with the hashtag #SANDYLOOTCREW. We were making the most ridiculous tweets that we could think .. .people will believe literally anything, even us stealing cats.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
He added,&nbsp;&ldquo;Anyone who takes &lsquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL&rsquo; at face value probably shouldn&rsquo;t be working in the news industry.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Photo via <a href="about:blank">@StevenGazz</a>/Twitter</p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:00:42 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/NewsSocietyTwitterTrolling Twitter to expose the media's racial biaseshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/74/ad/74adc6ed86b15ee9c701b31c5ed8ac45.jpg'></p><p>
The year&rsquo;s most embarrassing work of Web journalism has barely received the attention it deserves. We&rsquo;re talking about the <em>Daily Mail&rsquo;</em>s <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225663/Superstom-Sandy-looters-brag-Twitter-Even-momma-got-outta-house-loot-new-shirt.html">piece on Twitter users bragging</a> about their post-Sandy looting conquests, which quotes several obviously fake accounts. <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/263725666531430401">The Drudge Report</a> and <a href="http://www.infowars.com/shameless-looters-display-stolen-goods-on-twitter/">Infowars</a> also picked up the story.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
It turns out these tweets, which climbed to international attention via the phony #SANDYLOOTCREW hashtag, weren&rsquo;t just random works of trolling: They were an organized effort put together by a group called the <a href="https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">Gay N**ger Association of America</a> (GNAA), an affiliate of hacker group Goatse Security.</p>
<p>
We don&rsquo;t want to dig into the depths of racial stereotyping that would lead a reporter to believe a tweet like this is real: &ldquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL.&rsquo;&rdquo; But nevertheless the <em>Daily Mail</em> earnestly reported on that tweet and other obviously fake posts&mdash;some of which used photographs taken as far back as 2005, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/twitter-works-up-a-storm-over-looting-images-20121101-28lqf.html#ixzz2B0hRjaqB">according</a> to a report in the <em>Sydney Morning Herald</em>.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Catnapper: One person using the alias SevenleafB bragged about stealing a cat from a house during a looting-tour of New York,&rdquo; read the caption to the photograph of the allegedly stolen cat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center; ">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2012/11/5/catstolen.jpg" style="width: 630px; height: 689px; " /></p>
<p>
It goes without saying that exposing racial biases was a big part of the GNAA&rsquo;s goal. BetaBeat <a href="http://betabeat.com/2012/11/less-looting-more-trolling-daily-mail-drudge-get-pwnd-by-twitter-pranksters/">posted</a> an excellent story earlier today that included an interview with one of the group members:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
&ldquo;To sum it up, myself and a few members of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Nigger_Association_of_America">the GNAA</a> thought that it would be amusing to pretend to be looters,&rdquo; said Mr. Kaiser, who claims to be a 19-year-old African-American male living in New Mexico. &ldquo;One of us came up with the hashtag #SANDYLOOTCREW. We were making the most ridiculous tweets that we could think .. .people will believe literally anything, even us stealing cats.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
He added,&nbsp;&ldquo;Anyone who takes &lsquo;NIGGA I JUST STOLE A CAT OUTTA SUM1S HOUSE GET ON MY LEVEL&rsquo; at face value probably shouldn&rsquo;t be working in the news industry.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Photo via <a href="about:blank">@StevenGazz</a>/Twitter</p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:00:42 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/trolling-fake-hurricane-sandy-looting-tweets-media/NewsSocietyTwitterWith 800,000 photos, Sandy was Instagram’s biggest moment yethttp://www.dailydot.com/news/hurricane-sandy-instagram-800000-photos/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/db/bd/dbbd4cd6e0856ff1a4ca0691240576d3.jpg'></p><p>
Hurricane Sandy was &ldquo;probably the biggest event&rdquo; for Instagram yet, CEO Kevin Systrom said Monday.</p>
<p>
More than 800,000 photos were posted using the #sandy hashtag, he said at GigaOM&rsquo;s <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/11/05/roadmap-2012-live-coverage/">RoadMap conference</a>, far more than the second-placed hashtag related to an event&mdash;around 85,000 photos had a Super Bowl-related hashtag earlier this year.</p>
<p>
At one point last Monday, as Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., Instagram users were posting <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/sandy-instagram-twitter-citizen-journalism/">10 #sandy photos</a> a second.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Sandy was a really interesting event for us,&rdquo; <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/11/05/instagram-ceo-sandy-was-probably-instagrams-biggest-moment/http://gigaom.com/2012/11/05/instagram-ceo-sandy-was-probably-instagrams-biggest-moment/">said Systrom</a>. &ldquo;People are taking their cell phones and capturing everything.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Systrom alluded to the fact that there were likely many, many more photos taken as the storm took hold, with Instagram offering a glimpse at newsworthy events as they happen. He added that Instagram&rsquo;s geolocation features and photo maps provided important information during the storm.</p>
<p>
Sandy was an event that had a very visual impact on the physical landscape of the U.S. East Coast. In such incidents, images often tell the story much better than words can.</p>
<p>
Systrom also offered some hints as to Instagram&rsquo;s future at Monday&rsquo;s event. He said his company is focused on &ldquo;making meaning of all the data coming in, and improving the experience of curating.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
That means placing more emphasis on making sure Instagram can analyze a large number of photos quickly and figure out which ones are providing the most valuable information.</p>
<p>
One example he gave, according to <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/05/instagram-big-data/">TechCrunch</a>, is being able to tell you where you can find fuel at a New York gas station. That means being able to process both photos and text to give context and meaning to the more than 5 million images <a href="http://instagram.com/press/">shared on Instagram</a> every day.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, Systrom was asked about a <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/twitter-will-introduce-photo-filters-to-compete-with-instagram/"><em>New York Times</em> report</a> that Twitter is planning to introduce Instagram-style photo filters. He claimed he was <a href="https://twitter.com/kaz/status/265504184034529281">not concerned</a>: &ldquo;Instagram is a community, not a filters app.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
If ever there were doubts that Instagram is more a community than anything else, the flood of Sandy photos certainly dispelled them.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo of Kevin Systrom by <a href="http://instagram.com/p/RqAzGNqTo5/">@om</a>/Instagram</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:38:05 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/hurricane-sandy-instagram-800000-photos/NewsSociety